Oh My God, what a terrible game. For those of you in TV-land who still can't believe what you saw, I can tell you I was unfortunate enough to witness this embarrassment in person with my own eyes - which I will now go and wash out with vinegar...

Embarrassment is the best word to use here but I won't start calling for anyone's head or proclaiming the sky is falling. yet...

The crowd was quite poor. Not the crowd who were there, the crowd who didn't show up. The arena was only about 60% full. What's up with that Detroit? You better show up Wednesday or else you might not get another chance to see your team again this season...

My night started out not so well when I got to my (what I thought was) good seat in the front row of the upper level on mid-court, to discover I was sitting right behind the TV cameras. Not above the cameras, behind the cameras. I'm not usually one to complain, but I didn't feel like paying a good amount of money for someone 20 rows back to have a better view and only being able to see half the court for the whole game. So I went down to the ticket office and inquired about a seat move. Luckily a few minutes later they came back with a new seat. Beauty! An upgrade to the lower section. It was only row P, but hey, much better than what I had. Night back on track.

The Sixers looked like they came ready to play, no messing around from them during warm-ups, meanwhile a few Pistons probably could have utilised their warm-up time better. ie. Sheed and Hayes having a shooting competition from the corner 3pt line. No just that, it involved shooting a bank shot, free-throw style. Way to prepare just 5 minutes before game-time guys...

Rebounding numbers won't show how bad we were on the defensive boards because we were so good on the offensive boards. Our defensive rebounding was TERRIBLE! In the first half especially. Although he didn't make many shots, Dice was the only one hustling and rebounding in the first quarter. But he hardly played in the 2nd half at all.

Sheed got off to a hot start, getting in the post and scoring with ease. However, the downside was it took the other guys a while to get into the game. (Or in Rip's case, not at all). Rip was just terrible all game long. What's with him trying to drive into 4 guys? Frustrating beyond belief.

As a team we ran waaay too many ISO's. Not enough ball movement.

Offensive rebounding from the Sixers allowed them to get an early lead in the first before we eventually took a small lead. A good 2nd quarter, especially from Maxiell who was absolutely fantastic, but I think maybe it was just the fact Philly started missing shots that allowed us to build a nice lead at the half. It didn't really feel like a 13 point lead though.

The Pistons didn't show up to start the 2nd half, a quick 8-0 run by the Sixers allowed them to close the gap quickly. Dalembert was pretty unlucky I thought to pick up those 2 quick fouls. They were pretty cheap and that was the time for us to assert ourselves and take a big lead. Didn't happen. This was the time for us to get inside and make some baskets. Didn't happen.

This is the gamelog of what happened after Dalembert went to the bench with 7:30 left in the 3rd quarter.
Billups MADE layup
Wallace MADE 3-pointer
Billups missed layup
McDyess MADE put-back
Prince missed 20ft jumpshot
Hamilton missed 3-pointer
McDyess missed layup
Wallace offensive foul
Wallace missed 3-pointer
Billups missed 16ft jumpshot
Billups missed 3-pointer
Wallace MADE put-back
Maxiell MADE dunk
Hamilton MADE 2 free-throws
Hamilton MADE 15ft jumpshot
Hamilton missed 20ft jumpshot

Wouldn't exactly call that taking advantage of Dalembert being on the bench, would you?

The 4th quarter was painful to watch. The crowd was still excitable but I couldn't share their enthusiasm. You give a fan a free cup of water and they'll get excited about it. Not to mention they had those bloody thundersticks at every seat in the arena. Thank you Mr.Jackass who decided that!! Gahhh.

I thought if the Pistons managed to fanangle a victory I would still go home happy enough. Of course I would. But it didn't happen. I just had this funny feeling all night that we'd be the only team to be upset in the 1st game of the 1st round. Things just didn't go right. I couldn't believe how many easy shots we missed down the stretch. I can't recall ever seeing so many easy shots missed. It was hard to fathom. Shots that would be made 8 out of 10 times.

We managed to get into the bonus early in the 4th quarter which I thought was a good sign and even if we struggled to make shots down the stretch we'd still be able to score from the line. Which happened exactly, except we couldn't make a damn free-throw either! Missed FT's from Rip and Billups (3 in a row no less) meant it was just going to be one of those nights.
On the second last play of the game where Prince took that outside jumpshot I just sighed in misery. 'That couldn't have been the play you drew up Flip. It just couldn't have...'

In summary, I'm disappointed we lost, moreso given the fact I was there, moreso given the fact it was my first and probably only Pistons playoff game I'll ever see, but anyway, life goes on.

Let's just hope this was just one bad game, and not a sign of things to come.

PHOTOS FROM THE GAME

After the game I decided to walk the 3 miles home to clear my head. Didn't help much.

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